Refurbished Bicycle Spare Parts
Most bicycles that I find at the Local Tip / Re-cycling Depot are in pretty poor shape. Frames are bent, wheels buckled and components rusty, just like this bin full of Brake Calipers.

However, in nearly every case, I can still use the frames for Bicycle Trailer projects, spokes in the manufacture of the Mechanarchy Rear Bicycle Rack, and rusty Rims to make 'Bean Climber Racks' for the Garden.

When it comes to components like these Brake Calipers, the majority are still fully functional and have nothing wrong with them apart from a fair bit of surface rust.

I pull these apart, de-grease and de-rust them, treat them in a weak Phosphoric Acid solution and let them stand for a few days. They are then washed off, which neutralizes the acid, cleaned and polished. Whilst it is impossible to get them back looking like new, they do look far better than they did.

Home
Freewheels can usually be re-furbished back into a functional item because it is rare for rust to get into the internal mechanism. These are scrubbed with a soft wire brush, treated with the same de-rusting agent as above and then soaked and flushed in a de-greaser to ensure that the internal parts are free of dirt and gunk.

They are then re-lubricated ready for use.

Why bother you ask, when you can buy a brand new Chinese made Freewheel for around $24.00?

I'll leave that choice up to you. There is no doubt that if I charged my time at $15.00 / Hour to re-furbish these, they would cost Ten times that of the new one. Instead, I take a loss, the environment gets a win, and I sell them for $5.00 each.

Whether it's Handlebars, Pedals, Wheels, Seat Posts, Front Forks, Frames, De-railleurs, Crank Sets or what's left, all of these components can be re-furbished to an acceptable level for re-use.

I am slowly gathering a wide range of bicycle spare parts but I always need more!

If you have any old bicycles cluttering up your space and you live within 100 Km's of Clunes in Central Victoria, Australia, please consider donating them to Mechanarchy.

When you do, I'll post a thank you on the Simply Caring and Caring Simply page of the Mechanarchy site, along with a photo of the bikes you have donated.

More importantly however, the Environment will thank you from its very core!

This is the condition that most bicycles are in when they are donated to Mechanarchy, or purchased by me or scrounged from the local tip.

The tyres and tubes, (98% of the time), are unusable, rims (80% of them) can only be used in other projects, likewise with chains (close to 100%) that would simply be too dangerous to re-use on a bike.

Mudguards, handlebars, spoke protectors, seat posts and front cranks, like the ones in this photo, are often badly rusted, and take considerable work to refurbish. Every bike that comes into the Mechanarchy workshop is immediately stripped, so that the individual components do not deteriorate any further than they already have.

Each component is then thoroughly hand cleaned and de-rusted.

All bearings, cups, races and hubs are removed and cleaned. Amazingly, nearly 98% of these components are still in excellent condition despite the fact that in most cases, they have rarely, if ever, been serviced. This is most likely due to the fact that a lot of these bikes (like the one above), have hardly been ridden. Most of them were purchased, ridden a few times and then left out in the weather. It is easy to tell when this has happened, pedals, seats (apart from dog chews or sun damage) and handlebar grips often show little wear and tear.
Here are a bunch of rear hubs, freshly cleaned and awaiting a light acid de-rusting treatment. All of the hubs in these two photo's have taken about two days of solid work to fully re-furbish.

This includes the degreasing of all the axles, cones, bearings and nuts. Each hub is then catalogued on the workshop computer, with all the necessary hub measurements for future wheel builds, before being lightly oiled, prior to being placed into stock.

Some hub cups are removable, and if they are too badly worn, are replaced with new ones. About 20% of hub cones have slight 'pitting' which can be rectified on my home built lathe, using the very finest of emery tape. The advent of bearing cages, designed for convenience, has done little more than help to trap dirt and grime in bearings, ensuring that its life is shortened. In most cases, I remove the ball bearings from their cages, clean each one individually, inspect them, and when needed, they are re-assembled without the cage.

The end result. All components are sorted and placed in recycled jars and tins, ready for re-use.

This type of recycling would be horrendously expensive for most bike shops to carry out. The low cost of new bicycle components makes the Mechanarchy approach look 'outdated'.

As a 16 year old Motor Mechanic some 34 years ago, this is precisely what we used to do. The throw away world however, started to evolve rapidly in the late 1970's, early 80's, and it has been getting more profligate, ever since.......

The Re-furbishing Process